Instead of re-inventing the wheel, have they considered teaming up with an existing service like ParkWhiz? I’ve started using them to reserve parking for downtown events this past year and now that’s one less hassle for me.

Why should taxpayers fund apps for private parking lots and private taxi companies? Will taxpayers help pay for an app for my business? I guess someday, somewhere I’ll read about someone getting kickbacks for City Council votes. Remember Ben Reyes?

We shouldn’t be funding this with tax $. Let private companies come up with an app / solution for this. If there is this pent of demand for downtown parking, why haven’t the garages come up with the solution to prominently display their rates? And $80 for event parking? If you’re too lazy to park farther away then I feel as if you deserve to pay $80. No one is being forced to pay that much. People chose to pay that much. It is not hard to find parking downtown, I’m sorry. This is a solution finding a problem here.

Ditto to the comments from slugline, ShadyHeightster, and dnaguy: Namely, stop spending tax dollars for a private industry problem.
.
The free market will take care of it. Fools paying $80 will soon not have enough money to keep doing it or will park 2 blocks away for less. If the private parking vendors want to feature their prices, they can pay for their own app or electronic display.
.
The city wants to first throw $9,600 out the window before kicking in around $800,000 for the final project? Nuts.

Nothing worse than having dead space and seeing ugly parking lots in downtown. Make downtown dense with underground parking and parking under the pierce elevated, 59, and i10 and if you are coming into the city you either deal with scarce parking downtown or park in a lot around downtown and take a pedi cab, Uber, or walk to your destination like a real city.